Adjusting to the American Life

After kayaking on the lake this morning with my friend, Kelly. I met my friend, Kim for lunch. Kim had also lived in France for two years about 5 years ago and has a daughter who is the same age as Quincy. We enjoyed sharing stories of our re-entry into the American way of life. Kim warned me that they continued to find gaps in Bryn's education as that first year progressed, just because of things being taught differently and at different ages in France. After Max's soccer practice tonight, we all went over to the new home of our local French family. The Massons finally received their container shipment of furniture and things from France so they were finally able to move into their rented house. They invited us over for coffee and to tell us about their last two days. Gaelle and Alain spent the two days with a French man from New York city who was their cultural training coach. We had had the same type of coaching when we moved to France, telling how things would be different and WHY they were different. Gaelle and Alain were very happy with their coaching, felt like they had learned a lot but were a bit surprised by two things. First of all, corporal punishment is still allowed in the French schools (and homes) although we never witnessed any in the schools. So, the man warned them to be very, very careful here about how they disciplined their own kids in public and other people's kids in any situation. The other thing that they were told was to not serve a big French dinner with champagne to a group of Americans because it would be considered too long and too formal. They were a bit upset about this because they are very social and looking forward to hosting friends in their home. I told them that if their guests were aware that they should expect a true French dinner, that they would only be too happy to enjoy French food, conversation and good champagne!